It Shall Stand Forever

Text:  Daniel 2:44, 7:13-14

 Introduction:

 Two promises were made concerning the church:  “Never be destroyed” and “Shall stand forever”  God’s kingdom was to be established during the 4^th world empire, the Roman empire, and Acts 2 tells of the beginning of this kingdom and the rest of the New Testament tells of the growth.    It is everlasting.  II Peter 1:11

 Question:

  What happened to the Lord’s church during the so-called Dark Ages?

 Body:

 A possible answer lies in an obscure group of people known as the “Waldenses.”  This is not a religious title; but one describing where they lived, in the valleys.  Southern France was their first home, then the French Alps, spreading to the Swiss and Italian Alps and then on into Austria and Germany. 

 They are first mentioned in historical records in the early 12^th century.  They called each other brethren and sought to maintain pure Christianity in the obscurity of the Alps.  They traced their ancestry back to the apostles and the primitive church.  They were involved in distributing Scriptures in common language, which was extremely rare in those days.  Many knew the entire books of the Bible by heart.  Imagine!  They believed the Scriptures were the only source of faith and religion.  Hopefully by now you are as fascinated by these people as I am.

 From the Waldenses of Italy we read:

 “We do not find anywhere in the writing of the Old Testament that the light of truth and of holiness was at any time completely extinguished.  There have always been men who walked faithfully in the paths of righteousness.  Their number has been at times reduced to a few; but has never been altogether lost.  We believe that the same has been the case from the time of Jesus Christ until now; and that it will be so unto the end.  For if the Church of God was founded, it was in order that she might remain until the end of time.” Gilly’s Vadois

 A list of their beliefs is almost staggering:

1. They believed all Christians were duty bound to teach and preach the Word, not just a chosen few.  We are all priests. Revelation 1:6, I Peter 2:5
2. They believed all could administer baptism.  There are no restrictions in the Bible.
3. They believed infants were born pure and did not need to be baptized.  Matthew 18:2-3
4. They did not believe in purgatory, only heaven and hell.  Luke 16:22-23
5. They did not believe in prayers for the dead.  Luke 16:22-23
6. They denied bread and fruit of the vine actually became the body and blood of Christ.  Matthew 26:26-28
7. They rejected images, relics, and other Roman sacraments.     I John 5:21
8. They rejected indulgences and monasticism.  They did not believe they should withdraw from the world.  II Corinthians 2:14-15
9. Most congregations had elders and deacons.  I Timothy 3
10. The Pope has no Biblical authority over the Church.  Only Jesus is the head.
11. The vows of celibacy are an invention of men.
12. They reject the observance of feasts, lent, fasts, and such like of the Catholic Church.
13. They are against consecrating church buildings, etc.
14. They reject saying last rites at death.
15. The worshipping of dead saints is idolatry.
16. They pray to the Father only through His Son, Jesus.

17. No true miracles are made by men.

You can imagine how these people angered the Roman Catholic Church.  From the 13^th century to the 17^th century, Waldenses were severely persecuted by the Catholic Church.  This began with Pope Innocent III in 1200. He planned on “exterminating the whole pestilential race.”  Dominic, the father of the Inquisition, also played a major part.  During these persecutions, the Waldenses hid among the mountains and in the forests.

 Various incidents are recorded throughout the history of the slaughter of these good people. 

1. 1393 – They burned 150 to death in a single day.  Dozens or possibly hundreds choked to death by smoke while in a cave in the French Alps.
2. 1487 – Pope Innocent VIII mounted a rigorous war upon them.  He sent 18,000 men to murder them.  Untold numbers were massacred.  John Milton wrote, “Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold.”
3. 1545 – By order of the Catholic Church 22 villages inhabited by Waldenses were burned.

 But Waldenses persevered.  The simple doctrine of Christianity flowed from the valleys. They were a light on the mountains during the Dark Ages. 

 “Since colonial time there have been Waldensians who found freedom on American shores, as marked by the presence of them in New Jersey and Delaware.  Many Waldensians, having escaped persecution in their homelands by making their way to the tolerant Dutch Republic, went to start anew in the New Netherland colony.  In the late 19^th century many Italians, among them Waldensians, emigrated to the United States.  They founded communities in New York City, Chicago, Monett, Galveston, Rochester and Salt Lake City.  The Monett congregation was among the first to be established in the United States, in 1875, by some 40 settlers who had formed the original South American settlement in Uruguay in the 1850s, and who had fled violence in the Uruguayan countryside, traveling first back to Europe then across the Northern Atlantic to New York and by train to southern Missouri.  Waldensians living in the Cottian Alps region of Northern Italy continued to migrate to Monett until the early 1900s, augmenting the original colony, and founded another, larger settlement in Valdese, North Carolina in 1893.  Both the Monett and Valdese congregations use the name Waldensian Presbyterian Church.”  Waldensians – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 Invitation:

 Those gathered here tonight believe in restoring simple New Testament Christianity.  The Scriptures, our only guide in matters of faith, tell us one must believe in Jesus Christ, repent of our past sins, confess His name, and be immersed for the remission of sins.  We then become just a Christian.  Some here tonight may have drifted away from Christ and need to return.  If so, please come while we stand and sing.

 Sources:  History of the Waldenses, Adam Blair,   Volumes 1-2, 1833

               History of the Christian Church, William Jones, 1831

               Gilly’s Vadois, and Wikipedia

Bobby Stafford

March 25, 2012

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